Knock the Door Campaign

Knocking the Door of Parliamentarian
for Early Passage of Law on Manual Scavenging Eradication

Inhuman practice of manual scavenging is unabated till today despite
having 20 year old law to prohibit it which is no longer effective. In
order to effective total eradication of the practice, The Prohibition of
Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 was
introduced in the Lok Sabha on September 3, 2012 by the Minister of Social
Justice and Empowerment, Mr. Mukul Wasnik. The Bill was referred to the
Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment. The Committee
presented the recommendation report to Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on 4th
March 2013. The bill will be discussed in the Monsoon Session 2013 of the
Parliament thus Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan has launched a campaign Knock
the Door.

Knock the Door Campaign
Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan has launched a campaign
on 12th August 2013 at New Delhi for early passage the legislation and
inclusion of demands regarding rehabilitation and total elimination of
manual scavenging in Indian Railways. Through this campaign, liberated
manual scavenger women are knocking the doors of Parliamentarians and
appealing them for an enactment of the bill.

Key features of the Bill
The bill prohibits employing a person as a manual scavenger who is engaged
for manually cleaning or disposing of human excreta in an insanitary
latrine or in an open drain or on a railway track. Also, it prohibits any
person, local authority or agency to construct an insanitary latrine or
engage a person for manual scavenging. If anyone employs a manual
scavenger or constructs an insanitary latrine, he shall be penalized with
imprisonment up to one year or a fine of up to Rs 50,000 or both. The
penalty for subsequent offences is higher.

Importantly, every local authority or agency is prohibited from employing
a person for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank. This
provision is applicable within a year of the Act coming into force. The
penalty for violation is imprisonment for up to two years or a fine up to
Rs 2 lakh or both. The Bill also aims to provide some rehabilitation
provisions for engaged manual scavengers and their families. A complaint
has to be made within three months of the occurrence of the alleged
offence. The offences under this Act may be tried by an Executive
Magistrate on whom the state government may confer powers of a Judicial
Magistrate of the first class. An offence may be tried summarily.

The central government shall constitute a Central Monitoring Committee and
every state government a State Monitoring Committee. Every state
government shall constitute a Vigilance Commission for each district. The
National Commission for Safai Karamcharis shall monitor the implementation
of this Act, inquire into complaints of contravention of the Act and
advice the central and state government on effective implementation of the
Act. Under the bill the District Magistrate and the local authority shall
be the implementing authorities and Offences under the Bill shall be
cognizable and non-bailable, and may be tried summarily.

The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment recommended that
the Bill should specify the duties and responsibilities of officials
responsible for implementation of the Act. Penalties and suitable
administrative measures should be imposed on them in case of delays in
delivering rehabilitation benefits to manual scavengers. Under the Bill,
the Ministry of Railways is responsible for eliminating manual scavenging
on railway tracks. The Committee recommended that the railways seek more
funds for the Twelfth Five Year Plan for the conversion of all toilets
into bio-toilets and elimination of direct discharge toilets.

Our Demands
A viable and formidable rehabilitation scheme should be
developed under the bill which must have provision for social and economic
rehabilitation of families liberated from scavenging since 1993 and later,
and those who will be liberated in future as well. Five acre of land
should be provided by the Government to family liberated from manual
scavenging. One-time grant of Rs 5 lakh should be provided for dignified
self-employment with adequate employable skill development. In addition,
the rehabilitation scheme should have adequate provision for compensation,
education, accommodation and employment. Moreover, National scholarship
programme should be initiated for the children of liberated families and
with other necessary facilities it should be given from standard one upto
post-graduate level. Programme for rehabilitation of people liberated from
scavenging must be gender sensitive as mostly women are engaged in
scavenging work. Under the proposed law provision should be made for
housing schemes, including Indira Awas Yojna that houses for Dalit
community should be inside the village rather than in separate hemlets.
Non- schedule caste like Dalit Muslim and Dalit Christian community
engaged in manual scavenging should get all facilities and security as in
case of scavengers from scheduled castes. People liberated from scavenging
and their families should be made entitle for all government schemes on
priority basis. The Railway Ministry must develop action plan for
addressing manual cleaning of railway tracks and also ensured
rehabilitation and for next three years must present progress report in
every session of Parliament.

The proposed law must seek apology for historical social injustice meted
out to people employed in manual scavenging from generation. With above
suggestions and recommendations, Government of India could ensure total
elimination of the practice and rehabilitation of the manual scavenger and
their family members.